Sword Art Online: Inevitable Death
by kajemi2
Summary: He has been waiting for this game since it had been announced years earlier. But upon logging in, he'll find that the fictional world he's entered is all too real. With little hope, and all the odds against him, Tuwile has to find a way to get back home and keep those he loves safe from harm.
1. Chapter 1

I sat on the side of my bed and stared at the dark gray helmet. The light coming in through the window glistened off of it, causing a white, shining ripple to stretch across its front. I had purchased the NerveGear using up all of my allowance, which I had saved up since its release was first announced. It was pricey, yes, but the cost was well worth it. All those hours I'd spent doing extra chores, washing dishes or taking out the trash, just for a few extra dollars in my allowance at the end of each week, was worth it. And now that the day I could use it was here, I almost couldn't believe it. All I could do was sit and stare, in awe. I wish I had paid a bit closer attention to my surroundings though, as my sister was standing in my doorway, snickering at me. "Is that drool on your lower lip?" she asked, stifling her laughter. I quickly wiped the saliva off of my face with my sleeve, trying to hide my utter embarrassment.

"Sh-shut up," I responded, looking away from her to hide the slight blushing of my cheeks. "I worked hard for this, lemme just gawk at it for a little while." To this, she stopped stifling her laughter, and just full on burst out laughing. "Hahaha! You're such a nerd, you know. I bet once you log on, it'll be impossible for us to get you to log out!" She taunted me, then turned away and said, "Dinner will be ready in about an hour. But I won't come get you if you forget to log off!" With that, she walked away. I heard the thump of her feet as they went down the stairs to the first floor of my house. With a sigh, I grabbed the NerveGear, and lifted it off my lap. Despite the bulky look, it was actually quite light. It was likely designed that way. After all, I knew I'd be wearing it on my head almost 24/7, and if it was too heavy, it could give me a bad headache.

The NerveGear was a helmet-like video game system developed by some guy named Kayaba Akihiko, and it had just been released that May. If you were to put it on, your consciousness would instantly be transferred to a virtual world, where you could take full control of a character, moving them as you would yourself. A technological breakthrough, they called it "full-dive gaming." Not exactly like diving into a swimming pool, but you get the idea. I presumed to lift the helmet even higher onto my head, then slowly lowered it on, shifting it around to get it to fit just right onto my noggin.

I can't say it was the most comfortable thing I'd ever put on my head, but it certainly wasn't the least comfortable. The dark gray glass that covered my eyes heavily obstructed my vision: I could hardly see to the other side of the room. As I laid down onto my bed, a million thoughts raced through my head. What was this going to be like? What new adventures, new friendships awaited me? I couldn't wait any longer. I sat up, then used a long wire to plug the helmet into my computer, which was just a few feet from where my head would rest. Then, laying back down, I readied myself, and said, "LINK START!"

Working as the activation code for the system, everything went white, and various beams of different colors whizzed past my face. I felt as though I was flying up out of my bed, soaring through an endless sea of mystery. Several blue circles then appeared before me. They read, "Sight, Touch, Sound, Smell, and Taste." The five senses. After a second or two, an "OK!" appeared beneath each of them. I deduced that it was checking that all of my senses were properly working and linked with the NerveGear.

Then, everything went black, and some new words appeared: "Welcome to Sword Art Online!" Sword Art Online, or SAO for short, was the hit new MMO on the market. Using the NerveGear, as I explained earlier, you could traverse through a vast and open world, full of other players across the world. Only 10,000 copies were released, and I was one of the lucky ones to get my hands on it. I almost felt bad for the other 8 billion or so suckers who would never get to play it. Two white boxes were shown before me, then. They both had words next to them. "Username" and "Password". This had already been set up before, so I quickly typed in each field. Under Username, I put in "Tuwile" and under Password, I put in "4236692577". A loading icon was displayed for a second or so. Then I was in.

I had previously designed my avatar, and tried to make him look as awesome as possible. A big, blue mohawk, with gray eyes, huge muscles, and a tall build. I wanted to make something that would bring fear into people's eyes as they saw me coming. Some day, they would turn, see my avatar, and say "Oh no, it's the most powerful player in SAO! Please, show me mercy!" And with a smirk, I would deny them that right, then send them all to their graves… Or at least the nearest respawn point.

I landed in the middle of a busy street, with dozens, no, hundreds of players bustling about. I was wearing the standard spawn outfit, a blue shirt with a dark blue breastplate, a belt, some pants, and a pair of boots."I'll sell you that item for 500 Cor!" "Hey, dude, join my party!" "I'm a level 7! Beat that!" Their words all flew around, aimed at one or two, but heard by all. I closed my eyes and just breathed in the air, felt the people brushing against my sides, and I absolutely loved it. I took a few steps forward, and just admired the beauty of the town. The buildings, the street pavement, the sky… It all looked and seemed so real, I just couldn't believe it was all a bunch of 1's and 0's coming together! But I probably should've been paying closer attention to where I was going, because I slammed right into somebody.

WHAM! Our bodies both went flying in opposite directions. "Oww!" I said, before realizing I wasn't hurt in the slightest. "Huh," I thought. "I guess you don't feel any pain?" The other person wasn't as optimistic about it. "Hey!" They yelled back. They looked _really_ angry, stood straight up, stormed over to me, then lifted me by my collar. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she screamed into my face. "Uh… Uhm…" I was at a loss for words. How lame would I sound if I just said I was admiring the world? This strange and clearly aggressive person looked to be a girl, but you can never know for sure with these online games. Her hair was long, straight and crimson red, while her eyes in contrast, were a marine blue. She had some freckles on her cheeks, and bright pink lips. As for her clothes, they were also the standard spawn outfit. "Um!?" she continued to yell, "That's all you have to say for yourself? Um!?" I struggled to respond, "Uh… No, sorry. I was just not paying attention to where I was going, is all."

This at least seemed to calm her down a little. "Well…" Now she was the one who couldn't find her words. "Alright, at least you see what you did wrong. I guess that didn't hurt at all anyways." She released my collar, then examined me. "Hmm," she said as she studied my avatar. "You seem like a total noob, so I'm gonna take pity on you." "Noob?" I responded, a little offended. "I've played plenty of MMO's, I'm no noob!" She smirked, then said, "You won't be one when I'm done with ya!"

The mysterious lady then proceeded to drag me out all the way out of town. "Hey!" I protested. "I wanted to stay and check out some of the game's features!" She turned and looked at me, then said, "Well, consider this the tutorial!" I was dragged out of the starting town, across a large grassy plain with some of the most vibrant and beautiful flowers I'd ever seen, then up a small hill. It was at the top of the hill that she released me. "Okay, I'm… Wherever you've taken me." I said as I stood up and brushed myself off. "Now what are you gonna do to me? I don't have any gold, if that's what you want!"

All she did was chuckle. "Hahaha! I don't want any of your precious gold. And besides, you just proved to me that you're a noob. The money in this game is called Cor, not gold. Besides, the starting amount for when you first log in is 1,000 Cor, still a decentish amount." I was rather confused. "Um… How do I check how much Cor I have?"

"Just open the menu."

"What menu?"

"_The _menu. You know, the one with all your items and stuff?"

"Right. ...How do I open it?"

"Ugh, you're hopeless."

She approached me, grabbed my right hand, lifted it, then swiped it straight down. Then, a white square appeared, floating in front of me. It had all the basic menu functions on it, like Items, Party, Status, Equipment, etc. "Oh," I said, feeling quite dumb. "Well, thanks." She smirked, but responded with a casual, "Meh, don't mention it. Took me awhile to figure it out too. Now, on to the reason I dragged you out here." She then opened up her menu, tapped a few things on it, and then a silver sword materialized in her hand. "Whoa!" I exclaimed, while taking a step back. She looked a little annoyed at my bewilderment. "What?" she asked. "All I did was equip it. That pales in comparison to actually using it!"

It was then that I noticed we were not alone on that hill. Aside from a few other players who were quite far off in the distance, there were also several large, brown, scruffy looking boars. I suddenly didn't feel quite as safe. "Um… Those things look pretty strong." I said, with a worried expression. "Are you actually planning on fighting those?" She took on a determined expression, and said, "Not only will I fight them… I'll beat the crap out of em!" With that, she charged at a boar, with a very loud and shrill battle cry. The boar, with its red, menacing eyes, turned towards her, stomped its foot on the grass, then charged with a roar.

"Watch out!" I called after her. "He looks really strong!" The boar and the girl were on a collision course, hellbent on ramming into each other. But all the girl did was smirk. "That might be true, but I'm stronger!" she shouted back, as she did a front flip over the boar, a full 360 degree turn forward. When she landed, she was behind the boar, and he was behind her. They both began to turn and face one another again, but she was faster. With her sword in hand, she swung mightily, slashing across its face. With a squeal, the boar went flying, then it shattered into tiny blue pieces, as if it were made of glass. She triumphantly sheathed her sword, then walked back up to me. "Well?" she asked. "What do ya think?"

"I think," I said, "That the only reason you dragged me up here was to try and impress me." She angrily sighed, then replied, "No, idiot. I dragged you up here because you're a helpless noob and I wanted to show you the ropes. Now come on, time for you to fight one." I was slightly shocked. "Wait, what!?" I cried out, "You want me to fight one of those things? I'm only level one, I need to start with something simpler! Where do we find like, Slimes, or Goombas?" Still, I equipped my sword so that I would be ready in case something happened.

"There are no Slimes or Goombas, you idiot!" she said in a mocking tone. "These boars are the weakest enemy in the entire game! The recommended levels for when you should fight them are levels 1-5!" Without waiting for a response from me, she picked a rock up off of the ground, and chucked it at the nearest boar, hitting it right on its forehead. It angrily turned towards us, then charged. "Go get em!" she said, as she shoved me towards it. "N-no, I…" I made out before she cause me to stumble right into the boar's path. At first, panic gripped me like a golfer would grip his club. But then, something else came over me. It was not exactly calmness, but I certainly felt more at ease. The whole incident played out in my head like a movie scene. If I were to dodge right, the boar would certainly see it coming, and swerve towards me. The same logic would apply to the left. Okay then. Going over like she did seemed to be the most logical solution, but to save myself the risk and trouble of landing then slashing, why not slash its back open while I was suspended in the air over it? It was decided, then. And it all went perfectly.

It charged straight at me, and I executed the jump over it. But instead of flipping, I did more of a forward dive, as that way, I would be facing it while in the air. Things then began to go as if they were in slow motion. I swung my sword straight across its back, leaving a solid cut line, then for the landing, I did a somersault back onto my feet. A perfect ten, if I do say so myself. I turned around to see the satisfying sight of the boar shattering into a million pieces, then swung my sword around a bit, before settling it into its sheath, which I'd had strapped onto my back. "How about that?" I said, as I made my way back towards her. "Impressive!" she responded. "There might just be hope for you yet!"

"That was really fun!" I said to her, my chest filled with a glee I had never quite experienced before. "Thanks a ton for introducing me to all this stuff." She shrugged, as if to say "no problem". I continued, "Well, my dinner is probably ready now, and I'd hate to miss out on sushi night, so I'm gonna log out for now." She looked a bit disappointed at this, then said, "Oh, okay then. But at least gimme your username so I can friend you!" "Sure thing," I replied. "My username is Tuwile. Yours?" She replied, "I'm Athanasia. Let's see… Yep, found you on the nearby players list. I'll add ya." A message box then appeared before me. It read, "Athanasia has sent you a friend request. Accept? [O] [X]" Assuming "O" meant yes, I pressed it, and then she gave me a thumbs up. "Hope I see you soon!" she said to me with a cheerful tone.

I smiled and nodded in reply, swiped the menu open, then tapped the options button. I looked around for the logout button, but… It wasn't there. I opened up the status menu. It wasn't there either. I then individually looked through each menu, but could not find it anywhere. "Hey um," I began to ask, "Do you know where the logout button is? I can't find it." Athanasia rolled her eyes, then said, "God, you're hopeless. It's under the options menu."

"No it isn't."

"Yes, it is. Check."

"I already did, there's no logout button."

"Here, lemme show you… Wait, what the heck? Where'd it go? It was right there in the beta… Did they move it?"

She too began frantically swiping through menus, trying to locate the button, to no avail. "Ugh, what the hell!?" she yelled in frustration. "Why can't I find it?" It was only then that I actually became worried it wasn't there. "Y'know," I said optimistically, "I bet the admins just realized it was missing too. They're probably scrambling to try to fix it as fast as possible, right?" "That's kind of a big thing to forget to implement…" said Athanasia. "Are you gonna miss your sushi dinner?" I shrugged, then said, "Nah, my sister will probably come upstairs eventually and yank the NerveGear right off my head. Hope it doesn't delete all my progress, though…"

Upon the finishing of that sentence, a bell began to toll off in the distance. We both turned and looked at it, exchanging confused glances. "Is an event starting?" she suggested. "Maybe…" I muttered in reply. The bell continued to boom, its "dong" sound echoing throughout the land, and inciting a new emotion in me: Unease. After it continued to make its sound for a few more seconds, it stopped suddenly. Then, I felt as though I were being lifted off the ground, as a blue light surrounded me. "Whoa!" I said as I was whisked away. I felt like I was floating, but all that there was around me was darkness. When the light reappeared and I could make out my surroundings, I looked around to see… Lots of players. Where we were was a mystery to me, but examining the old walls, the open night sky above, and the old, tan design of the architecture, I guessed it was some kind of coliseum.

To my right, Athanasia appeared from a shining blue light, looking as confused as I was. "Were we… Teleported?" she asked. I didn't know why she was asking me, cause I had as little an idea as she did. "Look at all these other players!" I exclaimed, changing the subject. There were literally thousands of them, maybe even every player in the game, all crammed into one big stadium. Everybody else was talking as well, making it difficult to even hear myself think. "What's going on?" I wondered aloud. Almost as if on cue, the answer to my question appeared.

A large, no… GIGANTIC red cloaked figure appeared over the stadium, with a blacked out face. Everyone in the area gasped, then went silent. All anybody did was stare, and all anyone heard was their own beating hearts. "Attention players," it said with a great, powerful and deep voice. "Welcome to my world." "'My world?'" muttered someone next to me. "My name is Kayaba Akihiko," continued the gigantic figure. "As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world." Everyone gasped. I suddenly saw images of this man, the real him from the real world, images of him I'd seen in online forums and interviews. He was the developer of Sword Art Online! "I'm sure you've already noticed," he continued, "that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat: This is not a defect in the game."

My eyes widened, and I began to sweat. "Wh-what the hell does he mean by that?" Athanasia asked. "How is it not a defect? Is there some other way to log out?" The cloaked figure continued, "It is a feature of Sword Art Online." A red haired fellow next to me said, in a tone of disbelief, "A-a feature?" Kayaba continued, "You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

At that point, I was frozen. I couldn't move. The world began to teeter around me. The chaotic voice of the crowd became distorted, and I could make nothing out. I stumbled backwards, and felt my legs melt beneath me. I would have fallen straight down had Athanasia not grabbed my hand and stabilized my balance. "Hey! Tuwile!" she yelled in my face. "Are you okay? You really don't look good." The world slowly stopped spinning, and I regained my balance. "Y-yeah…" I said, trying to think. "But… Is what he just said true? There's no way, right…?"

A player with black hair next to me then said, "He's right that the transmitter's signals work just like microwaves. If the safety were disabled, it could fry a brain." Someone else suggested, "Then if we cut the power-" "No," the black haired guy interrupted, "the NerveGear has an internal battery." Athanasia's face fell upon hearing this. "Th… Then…" she began to say. "How will we ever get out of here!?" The large, cloaked Kayaba continued, "Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world. As you can see," he said as several screens appeared around him, showing news footage of people crying and some other stuff that looked like it had to do with the NerveGear, "news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game.

"But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone in the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost." "That doesn't seem so bad. " I said. "Then we can log out and be free again, right?" Athanasia replied, "Something tells me it won't be that easy…" "And simultaneously," said Kayaba, "the NerveGear will destroy your brain." Everything went utterly silent. All anybody did was stare, and pray that it was all a lie, pray that this was just a dream, and that they would soon wake up.

"There is only one means of escape." he announced. "To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game." "Y-you're just making that up!" Someone shouted. "Clear all 100 floors? That's impossible! The beta testers never made it anywhere near that high!" Ignoring all the outcry, Kayaba resumed his speech. "Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage. Please see for yourselves."

At this, every player, including Athanasia and I, opened up our menus, looked through the storage, and found a single item: A mirror. I tapped and equipped it, with the small glass object appearing in my hand, reflecting my avatar's face back at me. "Okay," said Athanasia. "Now what are we supposed to do with this?" After a second or two, several players began to disappear into a blue light, same as when they were teleported here. Athanasia was also enveloped in this light. "H-hey! What's going on!?" I shouted, just as the light overtook me as well. Everything went bright, too bright to see, then when the light dimmed, we were all back in the coliseum. But something was different. I turned to Athanasia, and asked, "You okay?"

But when she turned to respond, she looked… Different. Her hair was shorter, and black, in pigtails. Her freckles were gone, and her lips no longer had their pink shine. Her chest was noticeably less… Big. But her eyes stayed the same. "T-Tuwile?!" she exclaimed. Why do you look so… Different?" I wasn't sure what she meant by this, but when I looked in the mirror, it all suddenly made sense. In the mirror, I no longer saw my avatar. I saw me, the real me. Messy, brown hair hanging down into my face, rounded off nose, green eyes, dull pink lips, short stature, skinny arms and skinny legs. "Is this what you look like in real life?" I asked her. "Yeah," she replied. "And I assume that's the real you?"

I nodded in reply. When you first put on The NerveGear, it scans your face, then prompts you to pat around different places on your body. That had to have been how it knew what everyone looked like. And most of the people looked pretty ugly, to be honest. But, looking at Athanasia, she still looked quite cute. His voice booming over everyone else's. Kayaba continued, "Right now you're probably wondering, 'Why? Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this?' My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason… To create this world and intervene in it. And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players." And with that said, he crumbled to the ground, disappearing in a cloud of red smoke.

All was silent once more. The other players still stood in disbelief. Even Athanasia was utterly silent, staring at where Kayaba once was with a look of distraught upon her face. But I knew what it meant. I knew what all he had just said, everything that just happened meant. If I were to get a game over in Sword Art Online… It would mean game over in my life as well. I grabbed her hand and began to drag her out of there. "Come on," I said, feeling unusually calm. "We need to get out of here before this place erupts into chaos." Almost as if on cue, a girl shouted, "NOOOO!" At the top of her lungs, and snapped everyone out of it. "Screw you, Kayaba!" "Let us out of here!" "Tell us it's a lie, say it's just a trick!"

Everybody began to run around, shoving others, tripping over, falling to the ground, every sign of sheer panic. I was ahead of the crowd, though, running at top speed, pulling Athanasia with me. I got us out of the stadium, and began to run through the streets. She remained silent the entire journey. After we reached the outskirts of town, I stopped and said, "Okay, if we're going to survive, we'll need to level up. The best way to do that is to grind higher level monsters, so we oughta head to the next town. Okay?" Her only response was a blank stare. "Athanasia!" I shouted, trying to get her to snap out of it. It at least got her to talk.

"It's all true, isn't it?" she whispered. "What he said back there?" I nodded. "Then," she continued, "What will my family do?" I was confused by her question. "Uh… I'm sure they'll avoid removing the NerveGear, if that's what you're worried about." "No," she replied, "What I mean is, won't they miss us? Who knows how long it could take to get to the top? I was a beta tester, and after a solid three months of trying, the highest anyone got was floor eight! At that rate, It could take three, four, maybe even five years to get to the top! How will our bodies in the real world survive that long!?"

I wasn't sure what to say to make her feel better. She was right, though. Even if we were moved to hospitals and put on IV treatments, they could only keep us alive for so long with modern machines. But I wasn't about to tell her that. I stepped up to her, and, despite the fact that she was two inches taller than me, I hugged her tight. She didn't struggle. In fact, she hugged me back, and started to cry into my shoulder. "Don't you worry," I said to soothe her. "You were there for me in my moment of panic, and now I'm here for you in yours. As long as you're by my side, as long as I still breathe in this virtual world… I'll keep you safe."


	2. Chapter 2

Athanasia walked alongside side me as we went through the Town of Beginnings, the starting town that I'd first spawned in. She was still silent, with dried tears around her eyes. I wanted to say something to try and cheer her up, but she spoke first. "Hey, um," she started to say. "Thanks for that. And uh, sorry I just broke down in front of you, I'll try to act a bit more… mature now." I was silent for a moment, then replied with, "No problem. I'm sure you're not the only person who reacted that way. I've just always been good at bottling up emotions, or else I would've cried alongside you." It was night now, with the stars twinkling in the sky. But none of the constellations were there, in fact, each of the stars was just an extra bit of coding to make the game seem more real. But it wasn't, none of it was real.

"You said that we should get stronger, right?" asked Athanasia. "So, to do that, we should go out and fight monsters. That way we can level up and stand a better chance at surviving." I nodded. "Yeah, I think we should do that," I replied, "but first, I'm tired, and I want to sleep somewhere. There's an inn just down this street." She looked slightly appalled. "You want to… Sleep!?" she cried out, apparently shocked. "How can you possibly sleep when we could die at any moment!?" I personally was confused by her reaction. "Um, we could also die on Earth, but we sleep a lot there anyways…" I responded. "If we're stuck here for awhile, me may as well enjoy ourselves, right?"

All she did was sigh. "Are you this laid-back in the real world, too?" she wondered aloud. I shrugged, but didn't answer. At this point, we had walked far enough so that the inn was in front of us. It blended in well with all the other buildings, its tan, cracked walls with wood lining along the sides. A few windows here and there, all covered with bars and glass. The only difference was a little green sign that hung down off the second floor, which read "INN" on it in yellow letters. "I hope it's cheap," I said. "I've only got 1,030 Cor." Athanasia replied, "It's in the first town, so it should at most cost 50 Cor. Pretty cheap, but it only has one bed and one table per room."

"That's all I need!" I shouted as I barged through the door and approached the innkeeper NPC. "Hey there," I said. "I'd like one room for the night, please." The NPC was a short woman with blonde hair wrapped up in a bonnet, and a dress that was not unlike that of a maid. She smiled, tilted her head, and said, "Okay, sir. That'll be 50 Cor for one night in a small suite." A message box appeared in front of me, which read, "Rent a room at the Inn for 50 Cor? [O] [X]" I touched the circle option, and saw that my amount of Cor went down by 50, leaving me with 980 left. Another message replaced the old one, saying my room number was 106.

Athanasia approached me and said, "You can go get settled in, I'll rent a room too. We'll meet up first thing tomorrow, kay?" "Kay," I replied. "But first, one thing." She looked at me expectantly. I opened up the menu, tapped the "Party" option, and sent her an invite. "That way we can keep in close contact if something happens." I explained. She nodded, then hit the accept button. On the top left corner of my field of view, I saw a little second HP bar appear below mine, which read, "Athanasia - Level 3" Below that, her HP bar was shown, only slightly diminished. Her amount of HP read "237/250". I thanked her, then turned and went down a hallway to find my room.

I quickly found the door to room 106, and when I tried to open it, a message box appeared before me, prompting me to place my hand on it. I skeptically followed its orders, and after three or four seconds, the box read, "OK!" and the door opened. It figured it was some sort of scanner to see if I was the one who rented that room. I walked into the room and closed the door behind me. It was dimly lit, with just a small lamp on a wooden bedside table illuminating the entire room. Not the the room itself was even the big, it was maybe six or seven feet across, in a square shape. The walls were white in color, with each corner having a wood beam go up from the floor to the ceiling. Next to the lamp was a small hand clock, which revealed to me that the current time was 11:37.

I sat down on the bed, (which wasn't that big either,) and unequipped my sword through the menu. I also unequipped my breastplate, which was feeling pretty heavy, and my boots, which were muddy anyways. I personally always liked sleeping with my socks on. But as I laid down, I knew I wouldn't get a wink of sleep that night. Too much had happened. As I laid on the cold bed, I reached over to turn off the lamp. Upon doing so, the room became pitch black, as it had no windows to let in any outside light. That was okay, though. I kinda liked darkness. I closed my eyes, welcoming it to overtake me, daring anything to come out from under the bed and just try to kill me.

Nothing came, of course. Not even sleep. I opened my eyes after what had seemed like just a few minutes, then glanced over at the clock. "No way!" I thought, as the clock showed me the time was now 7:13 in the morning. "I didn't even get to fall asleep…" I muttered as I reluctantly sat up, wiped my eyes and re-equipped my gear. Breastplate, check. Boots, check. Sword, check. I looked up at my HP bar. It was full, 230/230. Glancing down at Athanasia's HP bar, I saw that it was now a full 250/250, but there was a gray little rectangle next to her name. It said "SLP" on it. I assumed that stood for "sleep" which mean that she had somehow found a way to relax that evening.

With a sigh, I stood up, stretched, then exited the room through the door. I decided that while she was sleeping, I might go out and do some early morning training. On my way out, the Innkeeper NPC smiled and said, "I hope you enjoyed your stay!" I smiled and nodded in reply, then headed out the door. Outside, the sky was already a gorgeous blue, with a few puffy white clouds here and there. It seemed almost like a normal day. I began to walk, no... _Run_ down the cobblestone street, ignoring all the people who would jump out my my way then call me a prick, even the one player who I accidentally knocked down, even as she cursed at me while I ran. They all didn't matter to me. The only thing that mattered was _my _survival, not theirs.

After two or three minutes of running, I reached the hill where Athanasia had taken be the day before. But now, there were more boars, and different enemies too. I spotted a white wolf, sniffing the ground. It would be the first to fall by my blade that day. I ran towards it, unsheathed my sword, leaped into the air, and brought the blade down onto the wolf's back, with a massive "HYAAAH!" coming from my mouth. It hardly knew what hit it. With a whimper, it flew a few feet away from me, then shattered into the million shards of glass, same way every other monster died. A notification appeared before me. It read, "Congratulations! Level Up!"

I was now a level 2, and I could already feel myself getting stronger. I divided up my reward points evenly among my different stats. I would have poured everything into my attack stat, but if I let my defense or speed get too low, and if I were to face something that was high in both attack and speed, I would be finished. I scanned the area for more monsters, and saw a boar just a few yards away. I smiled, and charged at it, with my sword raised.

I went on to kill almost every monster I saw for the next three hours. I even ventured further out into the fields, and destroyed some higher level ones. I had just impaled a giant version of the boar monster, when I noticed someone watching me. I turned and looked right back at them with a glare, but all they did was smirk back at me. I sheathed my sword and stood still for a moment, before saying, "What do you want? I'm busy." They shrugged, then replied, "I'm just surprised that one of these monsters hasn't so much as touched you. Your HP bar hasn't diminished at all, and you've been at this for hours." I wasn't sure how to react to this. "So," I began. "You've just been standing there, watching me for hours? That's creepy." They had a confused look on their face, then just started to laugh.

He began to approach me, and I was able to make out his appearance better. His clothes were the same as mine, but red in color. His hair was a light gray, almost silver, and a while it was mostly in a short military cut, a few strand of it came down the side of his face in a crescent moon shape. After just a couple seconds of him walking towards me, he stood not two feet away. I started to nervously sweat, but all he did was look at me with this stupid grin. I was starting to get both agitated and a little scared. "Quit staring at me!" I shouted at him. "Go mind your own business!" I should mention how much taller than me he was. I had to tilt my head up to meet his eyes, and even though I wasn't exactly super short, he towered over me.

He replied with a smile, "That's quite rude of you to say. And I was just about to give you a present, too." This greatly confused me. "A… Present?" I asked, with a puzzled look on my face. "Sure!" he said. "I figured I'd go out and look for strong players to form a guild, and well, you look rather capable of holding your own out there!" "So…" I began to piece things together. "The present is an invitation to your guild?" He nodded, gave me a thumbs up, then said "Precisely. Would you like to join The Knights of the Blood Oath?" I snickered upon hearing its name. "'Knights of the Blood Oath'?" I replied in a mocking tone. "That's the name you're going with?" He looked concerned at this remark. "Is there something wrong with it?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No," I answered, "It just sounds a lot like it would be the name of a cult... Well, I guess I'm "flattered" by your offer, but no thanks. I promised a friend I'd help them get through this thing, and I don't break promises." He looked disappointed, but nodded. Without another word, he turned and walked away. I was thinking of reconsidering my decision, but shook my head, and decided to call it a day for monster grinding. Looking up at my HP bar, I saw his statement to be true. I was utterly unscathed. I also noticed that Athanasia no longer had the "sleep" status on her, so she had to have woken up.

With this knowledge, I ran back through the fields to the Town of Beginnings. I quickly pulled up the map to find the inn, and followed the highlighted route it presented me with. Within about five minutes, I was back in front of the tan building. And as I was about to enter, I received a message. A small yellow square with an envelope on it began floating in front of me, flashing on and off. I tapped it, and a message box opened up, which I figured was the message. It said, "To Tuwile: Where the hell did you go off to? And why is your level suddenly so high!? Come back to the inn, I'm waiting for you there, alright? Geez. From, Ana."

I was confused when the letter said it was from someone named Ana, then realized it must've been Athanasia accidentally using her real name. Or she was just shortening her long and somewhat hard to spell username. Either way, I pushed the door open, and walked in to find her waiting expectantly, leaning against the door. When she saw me, her face lit up, and she said, "There you are! I didn't see you anywhere, and the NPC said you checked out, so I got worried!" "I'm fine," I responded. "Just when out to do a little bit of level grinding is all." She smirked, then replied, "A little? Dude, you're a level sixteen now. You suddenly shot up fifteen levels. Now I'm the one who's a noob!"

"You're not a noob," I said. "Just someone who's about to go and level up as much as I did!" With that, I grabbed her arm and dragged her outside, through the town and back out onto the hill. But on our way there, I ran through a small alley on the outskirts as a shortcut. But there, I was approached by someone again. This was a different person than the one from before. The new guy was several inches taller than I, and had large muscles on his biceps. "Hey," he said in a deep voice. "Gimme all of your Cor right now, noobs." Athanasia gasped, then retorted "Oh yeah? Why don't you make us, you big fat mugger!"

The big guy replied, "Okay, I will." He then drew his sword from its sheath, and it was a big, two handed sword. At least three and a half feet long, and half a foot wide, its tip looked pointier than a fully sharpened pencil. Athanasia and I took a few steps back. Suddenly, a message box appeared before me. It read, "Manslaughter has challenged you to a duel. Do you accept? [O] [X]" I assumed that "Manslaughter" was the big guy in front of me, then tapped the circle to accept. "No, Tuwile!" Athanasia shouted. "If you lose the duel, you'll die!" "Then I won't lose." I confidently said. "Hey big guy, how about we make this less dangerous, that way we won't die? First one to have their HP hit the red zone loses?" He nodded in reply, and also said "And if I kick your ass, I get all your money."

I wouldn't have really cared, but after all that monster grinding, I'd racked up 4,500 Cor, four times more than I'd had before. And I didn't want to look weak in front of Athanasia. "Okay, deal." I said. "But If I win, I get your big two handed sword!" He once again nodded his head, then ran straight at me, sword in hand. "Stand back, Athanasia!" I yelled out as I too charged at him. I drew my sword, and swung it hard, making contact with his blade, sending sparks flying, and beginning our duel.


	3. Chapter 3

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I charged at the large, powerful looking man whose username was Manslaughter. Sword in hand, I swung and made contact with his blade. Sparks flew out of the contact point. The next move would be crucial. From that swipe, and the force he'd applied to his swing compared to that of which I'd applied to my own, he was clearly much stronger than me physically. That sword had to be heavy, too, with its colossal size compared to my two foot long shortsword. I stumbled back from the recoil of the clash, and he seized his opportunity. He swung again with his massive blade, and slashed straight across my chest, leaving a large, red gash. I cried out in pain, and flew onto my back a few feet away. The thing that shocked me most was how much it hurt. It appeared that now, any pain we felt in the game would also be felt by our bodies in the real world./span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Tuwile!" Athanasia cried out. "Are you okay!?" "Y… Yeah… Never better." I sarcastically replied as I struggled to stand back up. Glancing at my HP bar, it now read "310460". "Good God…" I thought, "He dealt 150 damage to me in that one hit!" At that rate, this would be over if he hit me just two more times, since we were fighting till one of our health bars hit the red zone. But then I realized something. Looking at his level, he was only a level 18, just two higher than me. If he was doing that much damage to me, that meant he had to have spent all of his level up bonus points on his attack stat, making all of his other stats incredibly low: And that included his speed and defense./span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Upon realizing this, I smirked. "Gotcha," I said triumphantly to myself. I charged at Manslaughter again, with a loud, "HAAAAA!" Readying my sword swing. He too, readied his sword, then swung straight at me. But this time, I was ready. As his sword came at me horizontally, I leaped into the air, and hunched my legs closer to my body. The sword made a "woosh" sound as it was swung just inches below the soles of my feet. I landed, and looked up to see him stumble back from the weight of the sword. The full swing of the heavy blade threw him off balance, and he was a sitting duck. Before he had time to react, I jumped at him, and slashed down his torso. span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He yelled out, and cringed at the blow. As I'd predicted, my one slash took out a massive chunk of his health. The actual numbers were unknown to me, but it looked to be at least one third. "Good," I thought. "Since it isn't below half, that means I get to hit him again!" He was still flinching from the previous blow, giving me plenty of time to swing my sword once more and cut him horizontally through his waist, sending him straight to the ground. I watched his HP bar drop all the way down to the point where there was only an inch or so of it left. span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I walked up to Manslaughter triumphantly as he laid on the ground, groaning in pain. "Ugh," he muttered as he lifted his head to look at me. "I'll kill you, you little bastard…" I sighed, then held out my hand towards him. He looked a little confused, so I said, "I'm not trying to help you up, if that's what you're thinking. Hand over that big sword of yours." This made him kinda angry, and he pushed himself up onto his knees. "Why the hell would I do that?" he asked, defiantly. Getting annoyed at his stubbornness, I swung my sword straight out so that its tip was just a few centimeters from his neck. "You'll do that," I answered, "Because I could kill you if you don't." span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You… You can't do that, we're in a safe zone!"span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We're still in the duel. I can do whatever I want."span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're bluffing, then!"span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Am I really?"span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, you wouldn't really do something like that, you're just a kid."span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""If you say so."span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I thrust the sword forward a bit, just nicking his adam's apple. He cried out in pain as his HP bar dropped even lower. "Alright, alright!" he exclaimed. "Take it! Take it, I don't want it!" He presumed to grab his sword off the ground, and then tossed it over to me. I caught it with my open hand, but wasn't fully anticipating its weight. "Whoa!" I yelled out as it immediately dropped out of my hand onto the ground. Manslaughter snickered at this, so I glared back at him and said in a menacing tone, "Get out of here." He presumed to turn tail and flee. After a second or so, "VICTORY!" appeared above my head in large bold letters. The game had somehow recognized his running away as a forfeit. I sheathed my sword, and heaved the one I'd taken from him off the ground, placing it in my storage. I then turned towards Athanasia. "Well," I said. "That was a little inconvenient. I think he's gone now, though."span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wow," she said, looking fairly impressed. "I'm surprised at how much damage you dealt in only one hit!" "Well," I tried to sound modest, "He poured everything into his attack stat, so his speed and defense were really low. Sure, if he landed a hit, it would hurt me, but if he got hit, it would hurt him even more." "How did you figure all that out?" she asked. I answered, "When our swords first made contact with each other, I could already tell he was much stronger than I, cause just that one hit knocked me off balance. But he was only two levels above me, so the only way he coulda been that strong is if he had pumped up his attack. But by doing that, he made himself terrible in every other stat."span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Very observant of you!" she exclaimed. "Uh, but why did you want his sword so badly? He probably had a lot of Cor, why not take that?" "If I had taken his money," I explained, "Then he could have just turned around and continued to mug weaker players. Now that he's weaponless, he has to find a new one before he can go around thieving. It'll at least buy people a little time before they have to feel threatened by his presence." Athanasia sighed, then said, "You sure you didn't just want it cause it looks powerful?" "Uh," I stuttered in reply, "I-It looked cool, okay? And I don't wanna have the standard one forever." span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She then looked down at the ground, and I could sense something was wrong when she said, "Hey, um… How about we split up for awhile?" I was a little taken aback by this sudden change of mood, and asked, "Wait, why? We seem to make a good team so far!" She quickly replied, "That wasn't really a team effort, though. You took that guy down while I just helplessly watched. You said we have to get stronger to survive, right? Well, I can't do that if I rely on you to help me out all the time. So… It okay if I travel solo for awhile?" I was a little unsure, but said, "Um, I guess so. But what made you change your mind about traveling together so quickly?" span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Athanasia looked up, and answered, "Well, I was actually thinking that we would split up after I leveled up some, but I think now that I should get stronger on my own. I mean, if you died, and I was completely depending on you, what would I do then?" I shrugged, then begrudgingly said, "Well, I don't plan on dying, but okay. Just… If you're ever in trouble, send me a message, okay? There's no shame in asking for help when you need it." She nodded, then turned around, and walked away without another word. I stood silently for a moment, then tried to figure out what it was I should do next.span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I decided that I should leave the Town of Beginnings, and see if I could make it to the next town over. The monsters there would be tougher, and I could level up faster. And if I was going to make it to floor 100, I needed to be as high a level as I possibly could. I ran out of the alleyway, passed by a few other players whom I ignored, and exited the town. I made my way over that same hill once more, and burst out sprinting at my full speed. The nearest town, Horunka Village, was six hour walk, but it was only a four hour run. I was completely determined to make it there as soon as possible. I sprinted past countless trees, their leaves wafting around in the wind. I ran over green fields, the blades of grass dancing as a gust came by. span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Beads of sweat fell across my face, and my legs felt as though they had sandbags tied to them, but I pushed on, and ran for two and a half hours straight, as time and space moved around me. But eventually, I fell victim to fatigue, and had to stop. When I finally decided to rest, I was somewhere in the middle of a lush forest. I had strayed off the path as a shortcut, but I admit that I became a bit lost. I slumped against a tree, panting heavily, and slid down to the grassy floor. The sun was at the peak of the sky now, so I assumed it was midday, maybe 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. I shielded my eyes from its bright glare, and looked through my bag for something to drink.span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It hadn't dawned on me that I had absolutely nothing in my item storage aside from two swords and some raw meat I'd picked up. I tried to bite into the raw meat, but, it being raw, wouldn't break apart no matter how hard I chewed it. Eventually, I gave up and decided to try and sleep. "Screw getting to the town fast," I thought. "I'm spanspan style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"tired/spanspan style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"." I laid down on the soft, warm grass, and shut my eyes. The grass tickled my nose, and the sun beat down on me, but I really could've cared less. Having gotten absolutely no sleep the night before, rest came with ease, and I had a good, dreamless sleep. /span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"But when I woke up, something was wrong. I heard a strange noise coming from behind a nearby tree… Growling? I sat up straight and quickly drew my sword. Slowly, I stood up and edged towards the tree. I called out, "Hello? Who's there?" But I did not receive an answer. At that point, it was late afternoon, and the sun was starting to set, making the dense forest darker than it had been before. A large shadow lay over the area I was in, so I could see little of what was around me. But the noise became louder, and it was definitely a growl. Then, it suddenly burst out into a vicious roar that hurt my ears it was so loud. span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Something emerged from behind the tree. I couldn't make out its details completely, it being so dark, but I did know that it was at least twice my height, was furry, and incredibly large. It looked straight at me, and with the cliched red glowing eyes glaring at me, I knew that I probably should've just ran away. It was too late at that point, though. The thing's massive legs could easily outspeed me, and I had no warp crystals to use. A message icon appeared above the beast's head, which read, "Mala Bestia: Level 15 Mid-Boss". I was astounded at my luck. "A… A mid-boss?" I muttered in disbelief. That was the first time I was genuinely worried that I might die in the death game.span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It let out a massive, Earth-shaking roar, and I became frozen with fear. It seemed to be not unlike a grizzly bear in the real world, only much larger, and it stood on its hind legs. It took one look at me, then dove forward, swiping with a massive claw. I held up my flimsy sword, trying to block it, but the sheer force of the blow sent me flying back. I was airborne for several seconds before I finally landed on my back a few feet away. I quickly stood up, and noted that my hp bar had just gone from completely full to less than half. "He took out half my health," I thought in disbelief, "In one hit!?" span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I looked back at Mala Bestia, and saw that it was already charging at me with top speeds. If it hit me just once more, then that would be the end. I stood still for a moment, then, right when it was almost upon me, I swiftly jumped to the right, successfully dodging a massive strike. It stumbled, as it did not expect nothing to be there when it lunged, and I took my chance. While it was off balance, I leaped onto its back, and stabbed down into its spine with my sword. It once again roared, then reared up back onto its hind legs. It shook itself around, desperately trying to throw me off its back, but I held on as tight as I possibly could. span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The violent shaking rattled just about everything in my body, my teeth felt as though they would fall out, and my stomach painfully churned, but I held on. Eventually, the beast grew tired, and stopped shaking, and at this opportunity, I pulled the sword out of its lodged position in Mala Bestia's spine, then struck down at its skull, shattering the beast's head completely. All was silent and all was still for a few moments. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, Mala Bestia shattered, into millions of pieces, all fluttering down towards the ground in a blue hue. Since I was standing on it, I fell down several feet and landed on my feet, stumbling a little.span/p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After a moment or so, a white message box appeared in front of me that read, "Congratulations!" It also listed any rewards I'd received for defeating it. "700 EXP, 1,500 Col, 5 Pieces of Beast Meat…" I read all the spoils aloud. The box said near the bottom, "You got the last attacking bonus! {Aquamentis Scarf - +20 DEF +10 AGI}" I smiled, then tapped the "equip" button. The scarf suddenly appeared around my neck. It was soft, dark blue, and very warm. I sheathed my sword, then, after a minute or so checking around to make sure nothing else was there, I continued forward through the forest, not stopping until I arrived at Horunka Village.span/p 


End file.
